The concept is simple, explains Lundin. “Build some prototypes quickly to stimulate discussions with the innovation team or with the client. Learn from those discussions, and repeat as needed.”

He finds that the company populates its brainstorming sessions with people from a wide variety of disciplines, including designers, linguists, sociologists, anthropologists, builders, psychologists, artists, and managers; and the array of disciplines guarantees the opportunities for innovative ideas at the boundaries. “At IDEO, you get invited to a brainstormer based on your past contributions, and it is a high honour to be in demand as a participant.”

Workspace design, apart from being functional, can also assist innovation, the author notes. He cites, as examples, a Scandinavian company that painted clouds on its ceilings, and another company that removed all names and numbers from the office doors so that you would have to ask for help. “In asking for help, you had a chance to have a conversation, and the company wanted to facilitate cross-boundary conversations.”

Imation, a 3M spin-off that has pixie dust in its logo, used its windowed bridge between two buildings for creative communication, thus: “Markers were placed on the window sills, and those passing would use them to write something on the glass. Everything from graffiti to great new ideas appeared. The window makes a strong statement about the culture.”

Compelling read.

When Acer launched its new brand ‘Veriton’ in India, a few rules got broken. “I decided that it was time to halt the safe, consensus-based advertising game. We needed to be daringly different and bold and I proposed a different strategy,” narrates Sunil Robert in I Will Survive (Westland).

“For the first time in Indian hardware advertising, we decided to name our competitors — IBM and Compaq — whose corporate colours were blue and red. And the headline of our Veriton campaign said ‘Veriton Computers — Time for IBM to go blue and Compaq to see red.’”

The discerning ones saw the tongue-in-cheek references and loved the ads, Robert reminisces. “It was talked about and there was a furore in the industry for we, the underdogs, had thrown the gauntlet at the giants in the field. We had hired Leo Burnett in addition to our first agency, J Walter Thomson, as I was convinced that pitching and working with multiple agencies creates the best climate for a client to make great decisions.”

And the two agencies had different things to offer. “While JWT was creative in the classical sense of the term, Leo Burnett was bursting with ideas as to how we could cock a snook at the next guy. We loved those skirmishes, and the brand really took off.”

Stories from the ground-level, recounted engagingly.

Are you a company that uses manual purchase orders to procure items, writes up receipts to match with invoices when deliveries are made, and makes records of payments? Or, is your cycle a complex one “that is fully automated, where manufacturing demand generates purchase orders on which suppliers are determined by sourcing rules and sent out via XML, items are received into inventory according to supplier advanced shipping notifications, and invoices are created from the inspection process and paid with scheduled payment runs that remit the funds directly into the suppliers’ bank accounts”?

In both the cases, EBS (E-Business Suite) of Oracle can be helpful, says Melanie Anjele Cameron in Oracle Procure-to-Pay Guide ( www.tatamcgrawhill.com). While automation can be 100 per cent within the functionality of the software, the book helps with detailed setup descriptions, and instructions to process the steps manually, ‘since without the manual understanding, the automated processes cannot be implemented or monitored.’

At the heart of the ‘procure-to-pay’ family in EBS are the purchasing and payables modules, the author guides. “Integrating tightly with these modules are iProcurement, iSupplier Portal, Services Procurement, Sourcing, Procurement Contracts, Approval Management, E-Business Tax, iExpenses, and Payments. Subledger Accounting is utilised to account for the transactions generated by all these systems.”

For the hands-on techies and eager entrepreneurs.

Should school students carry mobile phones? This is one of the questions that Mukhopadhyay Suvasish raises in Motivating School Kids ( www.vivagroupindia.com). For most students the mobile phone is just a toy and they use it for exchanging fun stuff through SMS, he opines. “Deprived of quality playgrounds and outdoor activities, children in our cities use their mobile phones as pastime devices.”

Students in cities do need mobile phones, especially to cope with emergencies, Suvasish acknowledges. However, he argues against giving children mobile phones before the eighth class.

The author offers helpful advice to young users — that they should never use the phone while walking in the street or crossing the road. “Don’t attend calls while cycling. One moment of carelessness can cause an accident that will permanently change your life.”

Recommended study.

Do you know that Edward Yu of the University of California is leading a team of electrical engineers on a ‘thin-film single junction solar cell’ project with the potential for nearly 45 per cent sunlight-to-electricity conversion efficiency? This would allow crossing the theoretical limit of 31 per cent efficiency for conventional single junction cells, writes Satyesh C. Chakraborty in Energy Opportunities & Social Responsibility ( www.jaicobooks.com).

Today’s thin-film polymer photovoltaic panels do not provide free electrons with a direct path from the p-n junction to the electrode, he explains. “Such a situation increases recombination between holes and electrons and reduces efficiency in converting sunlight to electricity… Some experimental photovoltaic designs do include nano-wires or carbon nano-tubes, but these are not electrically connected to an electrode… The answer lies in providing a direct path for the electrons…”

The book also speaks about a project led by Pam Shapiro in the University of Idaho. “Shapiro’s team has created a compound called a ‘quantum dot’ that is made of elements that include copper, indium and selenium. The quantum dots would be embedded between layers of a solar cell and would absorb energy that is otherwise wasted due to overheating. However, a working prototype is years away.”

Imperative addition to the energy-watchers’ shelf.

dmurali@thehindu.co.in

Tailpiece

“We installed software that converts press releases into news stories…”

“How did it work?”

“Very well, till we activated a ‘spin detector’ module!”

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